The US Department of Justice has broken up a Russian-led criminal gang whose crimes included illegal poker games and hacking casino slot machines.

Late Wednesday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced multiple charges against 33 members of a gang with links to a Russian and Georgian “organized crime syndicate.” Most of the accused have been detained, although five defendants remain at large.

Among the accused is Razhden Shulaya, whom the DOJ identified as a ‘vor’, which literally translates as ‘thief’ but is understood to indicate a high-ranking ‘made’ member of a criminal gang who receives financial tribute from lower-ranking members of the same gang. The term has been loosely compared to the term ‘godfather’ in Sicilian mafia circles.

The ‘Shulaya Enterprise’ reportedly operated illegal poker businesses in Brighton Beach, while extorting gamblers who incurred debts via these illegal activities. The Enterprise is also accused of “efforts to defraud casinos in Atlantic City and Philadelphia by using electronic devices and computer servers to predict and exploit the behavior of electronic slot machines.”